Currents

The Get Up Kids

Problems

Super Jazzed to deliver First new music from The Get Up Kids’ first album in eight years (“Problems” is out 5/10!)—the seminal KC, MO band’s new single/video for “Satellite” opens on a stark arrangement of acoustic guitar and stripped-bare vocals, then Bursts Full On into a punchy, driving track revealing the time-bending quality of their songwriting in the process!

“I started writing ‘Satellite’ about my son who’s 14 and a total introvert—not antisocial, he just genuinely likes to keep to himself,” says The Get Up Kids guitarist/vocalist Matt Pryor. “But then somewhere down the line I started singing about myself—about how even when you’re playing a show to a room full of people, I can still feel anxious and isolated.” Director Kerstin Ebert explains, “The feeling of being isolated in a big city can be depressing. But instead of making this a sad story, I added a cardboard man named Hank to the storyline — a guy who lives like a normal human being amongst 8 million other people in New York City. Even though Hank’s adventurous ambitions as well as his facial expressions are very limited, he is the heart of the story and the biggest dreamer of all.”

“Problems,”The Get Up Kids‘ sixth studio album, was recorded with Grammy award-winning producer Peter Katis, best known for his lasting work with The National and Interpol, and more recently Kurt Vile’s latest. Peter was an old friend of the band’s, dating back to when he was the assistant engineer on “On A Wire” (2002). The band wrote most of these songs during last year’s “Kicker” EP cycle, building on the band’s newfound mission statement of leaning into your strengths. The result is one of their most inspired albums to date, a true return to form and will go down as one of their finest efforts.

The Get Up Kids will be heading to Austin for SXSW next week for a couple showcases, and will be touring the US this summer with tour dates and more music to be announced in the coming month.

Listen: The Get Up Kids – “Satellite”

Indoor Pets

Be Content

Indoor Pets’ new album“Be Content” is Finally Here! The Kent, England band’s debut album is one seemingly full of a bottomless pool of Great Tunes, focused on familiar feelings of not fitting in or wanting to play the hand life’s dealt you, all delivered with self-deprecating wit and lead singer Jamie Glass’ trademark use of double-bluffing word play.

“I feel like a black sheep a lot of the time,” notes Glass of his approach to writing songs. “The logic I had with songwriting was if I could reveal that in my songs and connect with other people who felt like that, then that will cure the feeling of being a black sheep. Everyone would be like ‘I’m a black sheep too! There’s thousands of us, we’re all loners!’ It nullifies the feeling of being a weirdo. Basically I’m just waiting for everyone to justify me being weird.”

“The quartet deliver a giddy, memorable brand of power pop”—NOISEY/Vice

“Indoor Pets pull out all the stops ensuring they pack in as many catchy hooks and jangly guitar riffs into the song as possible….a self-deprecating blast of refreshingly good fun on their exhilarating new offering”—The Line Of Best Fit

Listen: Indoor Pets – “Good Enough”

Calpurnia

"Cell"

Calpurnia are Back with “Cell,” the first new music since the release of their debut ” Scout EP”. Once again produced by Twin Peaks frontman Cadien Lake James and co-producer R. Andrew Hymphrey, and the track showcases a surprising amount of growth for the young band.

The track was premiered on Matt Wilkinson’s Beats 1 show. Matt spoke of the band saying “They’ve got great spirit, Calpurnia. They’re a unit, a proper gang, and a complete package – it makes you want to believe in them!”

“This song is about being taken advantage of in anyway,” says frontman Finn Wolfhard of the band’s new “Cell” single. “It was amazing working with Cadien and Andrew again and I’m really excited for everyone to hear it!”

The video for “Cell” released today serves as a behind the scenes look at life on the road for the band. Guitarist Ayla Tesler-Mabe tells us “While on our first ever official American tour, we had the pleasure of being joined by the incredible Pooneh Ghana for our last two shows in Austin and Houston. She is easily one of the most prolific and talented photographers (and videographers!) on the music scene right now, and so we left it to her to capture the joy and adventure of packing all your bandmates into a single van and hitting the road.”

Calpurnia recently made headlines starring in Weezer’s latest video for their cover of “Take On Me.” The video has already amassed more than 6 million streams with Rolling Stone writing “Wolfhard plays a young Rivers Cuomo, an aspiring rocker done-up with massive metalhead hair, who leads Calpurnia through Weezer’s rendition of “Take On Me” in the living room of his parents’ house. In a nod to a-ha’s famous music video, the clip jumps between live footage and intricate pencil animations of the band’s performance.”

Calpurnia also have announced three shows in Colorado this Spring, in addition to playing several North American festivals this Summer including Shaky Knees, Governors Ball and Forecastle Festival as well as Fuji Rock in Japan.

Listen: Calpurnia – “Cell”

Walker Lukens

Adult

Set to release his third album “ADULT” on 4/26, Austin, TX songwriter Walker Lukens has become well known for embracing contradiction, “blending genres and techniques” (Billboard) into an addictive sound that’s hard to pin down. NPR’s All Songs Considered described him as a “rhythmic sound effect master” who creates “curious, textured music,” while World Cafe called it “wonderfully inventive.” “Heard You Bought A House” (radio edit) is the first taste from the forthcoming release produced by Spoon’s Jim Eno.

“For better or worse, I tried to make a record about how absurd it has felt to be alive over the past few years, that sounds like how its feels to build a life while the world you were promised changes,” says Walker Lukens>, describing the broad premise behind his new album “ADULT”. “I also wanted to make a record that made people dance…so, here ya go.”

Lukens took creative inspiration from work like Bob Dylan’s famously wide-ranging double LP “Blonde on Blonde” as well as Frank Ocean’s “Blonde” while writing and recording “ADULT”. “That, to me, is the trick – making something personal and political that doesn’t try to make sense of itself,” he says.

“I’ve never wanted to be one of those songwriters who compartmentalizes what part of their lives comes out in their songs,” Lukens says. “I wanted to deal with Trump, and Charlottesville, and the ‘Me Too’ movement alongside things like breaking up and falling in love.”

Listen: Walker Lukens – “Heard You Bought A House” (radio edit)

Wallows

Nothing Happens

Southern California trio Wallows quickly established themselves as a band to watch in 2018, and are Now poised for their biggest year yet with their debut album “Nothing Happens” on Atlantic Records (out 3/22). The lead single and video “Are You Bored Yet? (feat. Clairo)” is Live Now!

Wallows first glimpse into “Nothing Happens” is the lead single and trippy video for “Are You Bored Yet? (feat. Clairo),” with the band in a retro karaoke bar surrounded by friends and familiar faces, including special appearances by Noah Centineo (To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, Sierra Burgess Is A Loser) and Brian Jones (Vampire Weekend, Human Natural), among others.

Over the past year, Wallows released their debut EP “Spring”, amassed over 40 million career streams, sold out a headlining tour, played major festivals from Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits to Camp Flog Gnaw and Life is Beautiful, and made their TV debut on The Late Late Show with James Corden. Idolator named single “Pictures of Girls” one of their 100 Best Singles of 2018, declaring it “stood out like a sore thumb in 2018 for all the right reasons,” Stereogum called track “1980s Horror Film” an “openly melodic acoustic guitar ballad that gradually unfolds into a thing of beauty with some help from indie-world superproducer John Congleton.”

Listen: Wallows – “Are You Bored Yet?” (feat. Clairo) (radio edit)

Grayshot

Surface

Already a ‘Song Of The Day’ at The Current/KCMP, Minneapolis electropop duo Grayshot’s new single “Misinformation” comes from the newly released third album “Surface”.

Grayshot is vocalist/guitarist/keyboardist Aaron and his brother, bassist Christian Ankrum, and on the instant sounding first single “Misinformation”, the band speaks to “the false sense of competence we get from our own perspective and our own worldview, that we fill with whatever informational source we subscribe to,” explains Aaron.

A rare hybrid of indie depth & heart with larger-scale audience sound, Grayshot‘s approach to electropop is sharp and sleek. Whether the songs are more meditative (the R&B-inflected, John Hughes movie soundtrack-esque nod “Anthropomorphic”) or brisk and upbeat (the Killers-meets-New Order standout “Aerial”). “We’re chasing a feeling more than a sound a lot of times. The temperature in the room changes when you find the right thing,” Aaron says.

Grayshot view the newly released “Surface” as a record focusing on communication and “the intense desire to be understood, and then also to understand everyone—especially your loved ones and the people around you—and to express the reality of what you feel in an accurate way.” That comes through in a song such as “Ordinary Love”—which takes the view that all kinds of love are unique and meaningful.

“I don’t necessarily expect that our thoughts unite the world in understanding,” Aaron says. “But I think of it more as, ‘This is me working out in a succinct way the things that are pretty deeply rooted inside of me.’ Things are less scary when you know you’re not the only one afraid of them, or vice versa. Things are more joyful when you share it with someone.”

Listen: Grayshot – “Misinformation”

Cinders

Looking Forward to Looking Back

CINDERS’ rowdy acoustic pop is on full display during their first single to radio, with the feel-good energy of “Tree House” adhering itself immediately to your brain, Then setting up long term residence there.

CINDERS’ indie vocals sit atop acoustic textures and catchy melodies, all delivered with the frenetic live energy you might only find at a punk show.

++ Added to Apple Music’s Breaking Alternative playlist ++

“Looking Forward to Looking Back,”CINDERS’ newly released and ambitious sophomore full-length, comes with darker themes combined with an explosive energy, serving as a fitting juxtaposition to the breezy, care-free optimism of their self-titled debut.

On the new album, CINDERS embodies the complexity of contradiction, yet never losing with the urgent, sing-along sense of wonder that makes the band a stand out. We couldn’t be more excited to deliver them to you first!

Listen: Cinders – “Tree House”

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever

In The Capital/Read My Mind

Following up a landmark 12 months for Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, who released their debut “Hope Downs” to worldwide acclaim, the Melbourne band reveal their new single “In The Capital”! It’s live Now digitally, and will see release on a limited 7-inch alongside B-side “Read My Mind”< (out 4/26).

Rolling Blackouts C.F.’s Fran Keaney describes how “In the Capital” came together: “I first had the idea for the melody and some of the lyrics when I was swimming. It’s taken a while to finish the song, to make it feel like the initial feeling. I can’t neatly describe it, but something like connection despite distance. I was thinking about transience and water and death and big cities and fishing towns and moon river.”

To celebrate the arrival of new music, Rolling Blackouts C.F. has extended their 2019 international tour schedule with newly added North American, UK, and European headlining shows and festival appearances, including Boston Calling, Governors Ball and Bonnaroo (see our tour page)!

Listen: Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever – “In The Capital”

Weyes Blood

Titanic Rising

The New Weyes Blood single “Everyday” chronicles the chaos of modern love and dating, short attention spans, restlessness and the continuous crusade (and carnage) to find some kind of all-encompassing soul mate. The lead single comes from her upcoming fourth album and Sub Pop debut “Titanic Rising” (out 4/5)—the cover was shot in a bedroom submerged fully underwater (zero CGI!).

“Titanic Rising,” written and recorded during the first half of 2018, is the culmination of three albums and many years of touring: stronger chops and ballsier decisions. It’s an achievement in transcendent vocals and levitating arrangements, conversational lyrics and thoughtful commentary on the modern condition of our souls. Like the Kinks meet WWII (or is it Bob Seger meets Enya?) “Titanic Rising” manages to ride that line between classic songwriting and post-apocalyptic futurism.

Weyes Blood has also scheduled an intergalactic headlining tour starting the spring of in support of the upcoming album, and which she’s dubbed the ’True Love Is Making A Comeback Tour 2019′ (see our Tours page!).

“There are complicated influences mixed in with more relatable nostalgic melodies. In my mind, my music feels so big, a true production. I’m not a huge, popular artist, but I feel like one when I’m in the studio. But it’s never taking away from the music. I’m just making a bigger space for myself.”—Natalie Mering (aka Weyes Blood)

Listen: Weyes Blood – “Everyday” (radio edit)

White Lies

Five

Fresh into the new year and White Lies are excited to share their new single And video for “Tokyo”, with not only the band’s new album “Five” just over the horizon (out 2/1), but news of a whistle-stop tour of North America as well (see tour button)! This triumphant synth-anthem encapsulates the trio’s unerring songwriting chops and acts as a perfect primer for the upcoming album.

As White Lies were working on their new album “Five,” they became aware that its release would coincide with the 10th Anniversary of their breakthrough debut, “To Lose My Life”. It seemed like the right time to close one circle and open another. Over ten years and four albums, the London trio have quietly become one of the UK’s most enduring bands, a cult group who’ve experienced both mainstream success and diehard fandom, a band who make bombastic, grandiose music about the complications and intimacy of day-to-day existence. It was time to kick off their second decade with a statement of intent.

Directed by long-time visual collaborator David Pablos, the “Tokyo” video was shot back to back with the band’s previously released “Believe It” video in Tijuana Mexico at the tail-end of last year and is a brilliant precursor to the band’s imminent album “Five”!

From first hearing “Tokyo,” director Pablos immediately knew what he wanted to create, as he explains: “As soon as I heard the song I knew I wanted to shoot the video during night time. Everything starts with us seeing scenes of life through windows from the outside, but once we go inside we discover nothing is exactly what it looks like or what it appears to be. Each window is a metaphor; more than a real space it is a representation of a mental state. But more than portraying the city, what was important was the human face and to capture the personalities of each one of the characters.”

White Lies explain: “Once again we were lucky to work with David in Tijuana to create what is our best video since ‘Death’. His unique knowledge of the area affording us access into some of the city’s most stunning and bizarre locations helps bring to life his vision of stories of love and loss. Where in the world would you be able to film a scene of the band sat on a 4-story high nude woman? Tijuana, that’s where apparently and resulted in our favourite collaboration with him yet.”

Listen: White Lies – “Tokyo” (radio edit)

Tacocat

This Mess Is A Place

Seattle’s Tacocat are set to release their sparkly Sub Pop debut “This Mess Is APlace” (out 5/3), and we’ve pulled for you the first single And video off it, “Grains Of Salt”—an ode for “remembering who the f*ck you are”!

Tacocat’s upcoming album heralds a more pop-driven and ebullient direction for the band, and the new music video for “Grains Of Salt” features a variety of Seattle’s finest drag performers.

Of the track, lead singer Emily Nokes explains, “This song is for roller skating, friendship, self friendship, yes and no doubt, turning it off, running up and down that hill, leaving gross stuff behind, landing the backflip, imposter syndrome, being your own genie, and remembering who the f*ck you are.”

When Seattle band Tacocat first started in 2007, the world they were responding to was vastly different from the current Seattle scene of diverse voices they’ve helped foster. It was a world of house shows, booking DIY tours on MySpace, and writing funny, deliriously catchy feminist pop-punk songs when feminism was the quickest way to alienate yourself from the then-en vogue garage-rock bros.

Their lyrical honesty, humor, and hit-making sensibilities have built the band a fiercely devoted fanbase over the years, one that has followed them from basements to dive bars to sold-out shows at the Showbox. Every step along the way has been a seamless progression—from silly songs about Tonya Harding and psychic cats to calling out catcallers and poking fun at entitled weekend-warrior tech jerks on their last two records on Hardly Art, 2014’s “NVM” and 2016’s “Lost Time”.

“This Mess is a Place”, Tacocat’s fourth full-length and first on Sub Pop, finds the band waking up the morning after the 2016 election and figuring out how to respond to a new reality where evil isn’t hiding under the surface at all—it’s front and center, with new tragedies and civil rights assaults filling up the scroll of the newsfeed every day.

Listen: Tacocat – “Grains Of Salt” (radio edit)

Royal Trux

White Stuff

Royal Trux Are Definitively Back! The band’s first album of new songs in 19 Years is “White Stuff” (out 3/1), and the upcoming album not only maintains the magic chemistry between Jennifer Herrema (vocal, moog, guitar, melodica) and Neil Hagerty (vocal, guitar) but expands upon it greatly with their natural ability to give us something unexpected, necessary, and truly unique.

Their lengthy recording break has done nothing to diminish their visionary, visceral intensity and enduring influence. Royal Trux Continue to find innovation in their ‘Bitches Brew’ aesthetic which now defines the standard mash-up approach so commonly ascertained and claimed by the majority of musicians that whether cognizant or not have followed in Trux‘s very large footsteps: “everything in the pot whether you like it or not,” deriving from world music, punk rock, jazz, metal, electronic, southern, teeny-bop and all the rest. In the tradition of the blues, through appropriation and re-evaluation, Royal Trux changed the way we think of music. Their return is nothing short of glorious.

“It’s funny how the outside world perceives or feels compelled to parse complicated relationships and dynamics…Usually it’s an all or nothing game”, muses Herrema. “This next chapter is just another perfectly aligned bit of kismet. No concerted effort to force anything forward or to create something with an eye on the past. Only an awareness that the present had come calling with a gift to assist the future future of Royal Trux. The true believers that were once strangers found their way into our universe because everybody was ready for it and it simply, as if on cosmic cue, came to be.

“its ragged title-track, a barrage of garage-rock distortion, stomping drums, woozy slide-guitar and echoing tandem vocals. Throughout the swaggering cut, Jennifer Herrema and Neil Hagerty celebrate the insanity of touring life, of ‘hanging out and playing all across the land’.”—Rolling Stone

“back up to their old tricks: lots of slithering electric guitar, forceful drums and distorted vocals. ‘White Stuff’ is halfway-punk, with Herrema and Hagerty rocking hard, but musing on some feel-good memories”—PASTE

“a satisfying bar-rock choogle that doubles as the album opener.”—Stereogum

Listen: Royal Trux – “Year Of The Dog”

Moving Panoramas

In Two

Warm and spacey, loud yet still light, painting panoramic sound against a moving melodic backdrop, Austin, TX’s Moving Panoramas are back with a dream rock-tastic New Single off their upcoming album that’s out next month and in “ADD Heart”!

Moving Panoramas break the shell of “One” veritably “In Two” with the new record, expanding room for more diversity, rhythm, volume, instrumentation such as the swimmy pedal steel, plus special guests Matthew Caws of Nada Surf, Sabrina Ellis of A Giant Dog/Sweet Spirit, and past Panoramas Karen Skloss, Jolie Flink, and Laura Colwell. Over the years, the band’s lineup featured a moving cast of magical busy talent, but has luckily landed on the incredibly solid current “In Two” crew with Cara Tillman, Jordan Rivell, Jody Suarez, and Phil McJunkins.

The Austin Chronicle describes MP as, “Conjuring a big yet intimate sound reminiscent of Nineties output from Brit indie 4AD.” Pop Matters compares the music to Dum Dum Girls, Best Coast, and The Aislers Set saying, “Austin-based band Moving Panoramas waste no time creating a niche for themselves within that style…” NPR’s Songs We Love says, “The ingredients and the sentiment might be simple, but the outcome is disarmingly complex.” KCRW’s Today’s Top Tune says, “Moving Panoramas have been honing an expansive sound that is rooted in slithering guitar-work and crisp vocals.” Brooklyn Vegan says, “Austin’s Moving Panoramas make hazy psych pop with the kind of intricate harmonies that instantly elevate things a couple inches off the ground.” The Guardian (UK) New Band of the Week says, “They’re in Warpaint’s ballpark, or Best Coast’s hazy dream pop territory, and are most likely to make Theresa Wayman and co jealous.”

Listen: Moving Panoramas – “In Tune” feat. Matthew Caws (radio edit)

Sego

Sego Sucks

With Sego’s shout-a-long/sing-a-long “Shame” Easily one of the most played songs at new music radio shows to date this year, And at but a month out until the LA via Provo band’s forthcoming “Sego Sucks” sees release (April 5th!), let’s delve further into your Next Sonic Addiction off it in “Neon Me Out”, which is paired (of course!) with some Equally habit-forming visual accompaniment!

“riddled with musical quirks and kinks that call to mind Beck’s zanier tendencies. The bass provides a pounding pattern akin to a heart on the verge of bursting, which the song eventually does during its climactic, jarring, but wholly enrapturing chorus…with an anthemic track of this magnitude, festival bookers would be smart to snatch them up for the summer season.”– Consequence of Sound

Sego seems to get off on doing things one wouldn’t expect from an LA indie band today. Being proficient at their instruments instead of relying on computer tracks to play their new album “Sego Sucks” live, recording said album in a church in far away Canada in the winter, thus committing to the deliberate notion of an album more than an amalgamation of ‘laptop studio’ singles. And yes, chanting “USA, USA, USA” as the main reprise of a reflective tune about entitlement culture. One must ask why? Why take it there? Or one may not ask and instead bounce and bop their way through each energetic turn, just happy to have their blood pump a little faster than the “everything chill all the time” pace that we’ve all become accustomed to.

And therein lies the trick of Sego. It’s a gosh-damn choose your own adventure story of music for adrenaline huffers and introspective socio-philosophical types alike. Not that the two are mutually exclusive.

“What started out as a hashtag from some disgruntled audience member, ‘Sego Sucks’ ended up encapsulating the ethos behind this entire record.

The more I give in to the modern temptation to generate opinions and clever commentary about everything swirling around me, the more I realize I’m not an authority on much of anything. It’s probably fine not to have an opinion on everything. It’s probably fine not to be liked by everyone all the time.” – Spencer Petersen/Sego

Listen: Sego – “Neon Me Out”

Perfect Son

Cast

Polish artist Perfect Son (aka Tobiasz Biliński) is set to release his debut album “Cast” on February 15th, 2019. The 10 track album, which features the lead single “It’s For Life,” was co-produced by Biliński and Marcin Buźniak at Axis Audio in Warsaw, with additional production from Jeff Zeigler at Uniform Recording in Philadelphia, and mixed/mastered by Buźniak.

Perfect Son is Sub Pop’s first Polish artist, the result of an extended interest in Biliński’s work and the country itself from label co-founder Jonathan Poneman. Several years ago, Biliński applied to play at South by Southwest as Coldair. Poneman saw his performance, and was impressed. The two stayed in touch, with Poneman eventually signing Coldair to a publishing deal. “I bugged him about releasing my stuff constantly,” Biliński admits with a laugh. “And I guess he admired my persistence.”

On “It’s For Life,” Biliński’s soft falsetto and arching melodies are embedded in a world of enormous drums, pounded piano, and blown-out bass. The lyric video for the song (below), was co-directed by Biliński and his wife Anna Mayer-Bilińska, and shot in his hometown of Sopot, and in Warsaw, where he now resides.

Listen: Perfect Son – “It’s For Life” (radio edit)

Fat White Family

Serfs Up

Perhaps the world’s last dangerous band, South London’s Fat White Family have stormed the palace, ceased the throne, and on their upcoming third album And Domino debut “Serfs Up!” (4/19), embark on their imperial phase as overlords of a kingdom of their own making. It’s the most gratifying and unexpected creative about-face in living musical memory, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to deliver first single “Feet” first out of the gate.

Seven years into a career defined by collapsing masculinity, Celtic mysticism, provocation, eroticism, wanton violence, joy, radical empathy, narcissism, hog-like indulgence, personality defects and a fondness for both extreme left and right-wing aesthetics – and some of the best musical performances the UK has ever witnessed – South London-spawned Fat White Family return, clean(ish) and serene(ish).

“Serfs Up!” could be called a career-defining moment, were the Fat Whites – always a drug band with a rock problem – to ever have considered this a career. It’s not. It’s so much more. It’s struggle. It’s survival. Potential, finally, has been realised, the odds have been defied, and the Fat White Family’s greatness can no longer be denied.

At the close of 2016 celebrating their largest headline show at the Brixton Academy after four years of touring, FWF were running on fumes. They were just about held together by singer Lias Saoudi who had led, Rommel-like, from day one. Despite hinting at a more streamlined direction on the motoric death disco of “Whitest Boy On The Beach” (chosen by Danny Boyle to feature on ‘T2 Trainspotting’), their second album “Songs For Our Mothers” was the product of psychically-incinerated, part-feral men, an undernourished musical morass described by the band at the time as “going to the extremes.”

With the smoke now cleared and the battlefield-free of casualties, FWF now re-emerge triumphant. The results on “Serfs Up!” offer something utterly sensual. It’s a lush and masterful work, lascivious and personal. Tropical, sympathetic and grandiose. It invites the listener in rather than repel them through willful abrasion. FWF have broken previous default patterns of behavior, and as such their third album heralds a new day dawning for a new world.

Where once they soundtracked a grubby Britain of vape shops, defrosted dinners and blackened tin-foil, FWFnow inhabit another cosmos entirely. “Serfs Up!” is the product of a band of outlaws reborn. Few but themselves could have forecast it: Fat White Family survived. Fat White Family got wise. Fat White Family got sophisticated.

Listen: Fat White Family – “Feet” (radio edit)

Lion

Lion

The first time LION (aka Beth Lowen) sang in public, a woman she didn’t know approached her. “You sound like you’ve smoked 20 cigarettes,” she told her, “and drunk a bottle of whisky.” Given that Beth was 10-years-old and unsurprisingly had done nothing of the sort, she started to cry. “I thought that was a bad thing,” she recalls, laughing. “And my parents were like, ‘No, no! That’s good!”

Nowadays, Lowen embraces the ferocious, Janis Joplin-esque rasp of her voice. In fact, it’s one of the reasons she chose to adopt the name LION. “Someone said I sound like a lion,” she explains, “Also, everyone says I have lion hair, and ‘Löwen’ means lions in German.” Still, declaring herself deserving of such a fierce moniker wasn’t something that came easily. “I didn’t mention it to anybody for months,” she admits. “It’s a big statement, it’s pretty extreme. But I was looking at people like Lorde, and I was like, that’s f*cking cool. And then I was like, f*ck it. So now it’s Lion.” The stage name never feels more apt than it does when LION performs live. Her husky but powerful voice, already so potent on record, is unleashed to its full, roaring potential, as she jitters a little behind the mic, bathed in red light.

Lowen doesn’t make music than can be easily compared or categorized. Each song differs from the next – though there’s one thing she hopes they all manage to achieve. “I hope people feel something,” she says, “like I do when I’m playing it. Take what you want from it, but feel. I want to make boys cry.”

+ BBC RADIO 1 — Introducing Track Of The Week (“Fiction”)

+ 6MUSIC – Steve Lamacq’s ‘Recommends’ (“Fiction”)

+ Amazon Music UK ‘Best New Band of 2018’

+ 1 Mil + Worldwide Stream

+ 100K = Total Video Views

+ Executive Produced by Linda Perry (Adele, Courtney Love, Pink)

Listen: Lion – “Fiction” (clean edit)

The Bright Light Social Hour

Jude Vol. 1

“No matter how much research you put into figuring out who will be the hottest new artists of each year, another act comes into your vision with an output that absolutely blows you away. Today, that band is Austin, Texas’ The Bright Light Social Hour.”—Huffington Post

The Bright Light Social Hour will release “Jude, Vol. 1,” their third full-length album, on February 1st. Produced by Chris Coady (Beach House, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Slowdive), the deeply personal album was written after the passing of vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Jackie O’Brien’s brother Alex, the band’s longtime manager who struggled with bipolar disorder. “Jude, Vol. 1”< is the full-length follow-up to 2015’s “Space Is Still The Place,” which spawned songs licensed for HBO, MTV, Fox, The CW, and NBC, and ultimately led to the band composing the theme song for Amazon’s series “Sneaky Pete.”

Known for their incredible live shows, TBLSH is a mainstay on the festival circuit in addition to their own national and international touring, having played Lollapalooza, Hangout Festival, Sasquatch and of course Austin City Limits Fest, to name a handful.